


Svlad's Mother

by jazminflorence



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Abandonment, Angst, Family, M/M, Other, Project Blackwing (Dirk Gently)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 09:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12909396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jazminflorence/pseuds/jazminflorence
Summary: Dirk and Todd are awake in bed and Todd notices Dirk is staring at a photograph.Who is the woman in the photograph? And what does she had to do with blackwing?Essentially Dirk tells Todd about the day he was taken from his home by project blackwing. Mainly angsty, enjoy.





	Svlad's Mother

There was a torn, old photograph Dirk kept on his person at all times. It didn’t matter what jacket he was wearing, whose rental car he “borrowed”, or which town the universe had taken him too. This photograph was always with him. On this particular cold night, Dirk was looking at the photo for a long while. Longer than usual, and Todd noticed. They were both lying in a queen-sized bed in a hotel room that Dirk thought they _needed_ to go to. Dirk had thought Todd was asleep, so he let the tears trickle down his cheeks without trying to compose himself.

Todd had a good idea of who the woman in the photo was. She had a big pair of eyes, and she was wearing a beautiful old-fashioned dress. She was sitting on a patch of grass, and wore a stunningly wide smile. Todd had seen this smile a million times before, but he’d seen it worn on someone else. Todd took a breath and then decided to talk.

“You ok?” It was a stupid question, because Todd only had to glance at Dirk to know he wasn’t.

Dirk’s eyes did not leave the photograph, but he did begin to wipe his soaked cheeks and compose himself. He chuckled a little.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I thought you were asleep. I’m fine. Yes, very fine. Quite good.

Yes.” The chuckling faded and Dirk’s face went blank. He looked over at Todd. Todd lifted his eyebrows, and then filled the silence.

“You have the same smile,” he said softly. “My mom and I look nothing alike, but man… you look just like your mom.”

Dirk looked at Todd and smiled, only slightly. Todd decided to place his hand on Dirk’s hand. It seemed like the right thing to do.

And it was, because Dirk started talking.

“She was a beautiful woman. So giving, you know?” Todd nodded in encouragement.

“She was everything to me growing up. My father wasn’t around much when I was small, so I could never blame her for… for…”

Dirk started crying again. Todd immediately put his arm around Dirk’s shoulders, and pushed Dirk’s head onto his shoulder. Dirk continued to sob into Todd’s shirt, and they just clung together like this for a couple of minutes.

When Dirk could speak again, he sat up and faced Todd.

“Weird things started happening. She would take me for walks and we would end up right in the middle of a robbery or at the scene of a dog getting run over by a car. Or a car accident caused by a dog!

“At first it seemed like a coincidence. Word got around of how unlucky I seemed to be and even worse that I could sometime, _sometimes,_ predict when something bad was going to happen. Children stayed away from me during my first year of school. The witch they called me.”

“Kids can be horrible,” replied Todd, with an apologetic smile.

Dirk nodded in agreement. “It’s no wonder she called them. I was only becoming a nuisance. An anomaly…”

***

I would describe him as an ‘anomoly’, Mrs Cjelli. _Scott Riggins spoke to Mrs Cjelli as calmly as he could, but it was vital he convinced her to let him have the boy._

These gifts, these abilities, your son seems to possess are not bad. They are unusual of course, but not bad. They would be useful, incredibly useful, if he only knew how to harness them and use them for good.

_Mrs Cjelli did not need convincing. She had no idea what was happening to her son. And she didn’t know how to keep him safe. She did not mind being dragged into these situations, but she could not bare the idea of little Svlad getting himself into trouble, because his ‘abilities’ lead him there._

_So on the 21st Feburary 1987, on a Saturday morning, the men in black came to the Svlad house, with a bulletproof van and a straight jacket. They dragged Svlad out of his bed, kicking and screaming. Mrs Cjelli was crying harder than she had ever cried before, and Svlad was doing the same._

Mum! Mum! HELP ME, please! Where are they taking me, Mummy!! _She ran over to her son, as the men were dragging him into the van._

It’s ok darling, _she tried saying through tears._ Trust me, my beautiful boy. It will all be ok. I promise.

_Dirk continued to struggle, and as the men closed the van doors with dirk inside, Mrs Cjelli could faintly hear Svlad screaming._

I’m sorry, Mum. I’m so sorry, I love you.

_She watched as the van drove into the distance. It was a cold winter morning that day, but she still collapsed outside as the van went out of view. She sobbed there in the cold for about three hours straight, thinking about her son. Had he made the right decision?_

**_***_ **

Todd sat in silence. He was still trying to process what Dirk had told him. Even Dirk looked as though he was trying to process it all.

“I tried finding her, when we all escaped blackwing.” I looked up the name in phonebooks and managed to make an international call, but a man answered. He had an accent, that sounded Irish. He said he had never even heard of the name Cjelli.

“I couldn’t just travel to England. I have no passport. And there was _no way_ I was going to try and apply for one… not with blackwing on my tail.”

Dirk had not been looking Todd in the eyes for most of the story, so he turned his head to meet Todd’s, thinking he had probably fallen asleep by now.

Instead, Todd was looking at Dirk, tears in his eyes. He looked like he was trying to say something, but he couldn’t get the words out.

Dirk smiled, and shook his head. “It was a long time ago, Todd. I’m fine now. She is probably much better off, and that’s that -.”

Before Dirk could finish his sentence, Todd leaned over Dirk, and kissed his forehead ever so softly and then held Dirk’s head in his hands.

“I am so, so sorry, Dirk,” he said, not taking his eyes off Dirk. “I am sorry you feel so unloved, and that you lost your family so long ago and - .” He paused, trying to figure out the best way to express what he wanted to say.

“I’m not going anywhere, Dirk.” Dirk smiled and let out another sob, and Todd continued.

“You are not unloved. You mean so much to so many people, and I am sorry it is difficult to comprehend but it’s true.”

For the rest of the night, they lied in each other’s arms. Todd stroked Dirk’s hair until he fell asleep, and as he drifted into his slumber, Todd listened as Dirk whispered:

“Love you, Todd.”  


End file.
